Resleeved on Latimer, Kovacs is on bodyguard duty once more, assigned to protect a young tattoo artist during a burgeoning war between Clans, and crossing paths with a battle-hardened CTAC assault trooper, whom he must reluctantly team-up with if they want to survive successive attacks from mysterious tech-ninja assassins who want the girl dead. Now, with rumours of bringing Morgan back to the fold to write further adventures beyond his initial trilogy, we get a 'prequel' chapter, looking at some of Kovacs' earlier exploits, successfully repurposing a resleeved Kovacs for the neon-drenched future-Tokyo-esque world of Latimer, as he gets embroiled in a messy Yakuza war. The second season went somewhat astray however, effectively wasting the potential material of both the second and third books by utilising elements from both. It was basically a murder mystery, only set within an expansive Neo-noir futurescape in the vein of Blade Runner. Netflix's first season of Altered Carbon did a fantastic job of bringing the first book - also called Altered Carbon - to life. Richard Morgan's colourful futurescape of downloadable consciousnesses, resleeving in any body you want, and theoretical immortality for the rich - who can just upgrade their 'sleeve' - focussing on a lead character of former Government soldier-turned rebel warrior, Takeshi Kovacs, as he is brought back to life across the centuries to serve the bidding of a variety of clients, is rich for mining. But even that honor-based philosophy can be circumvented if you have the will to do so, and that becomes the central mystery of this tale.Few will disagree that season 2 of Altered Carbon didn't quite live up to its predecessor, leaving this action-packed future-tech anime room to reset the balance. But in the many worlds of Altered Carbon, few deaths are certain.Ĭomplicating Kovacs' mission is young Holly, a tattoo artist for the Mizumoto clan with a special connection to the yakuza boss and the central philosophy of their clan: When a new successor is chosen, the tattoo artist copies the boss' tattoo onto the newcomer and simultaneously activates a program in the old boss that will sacrifice them, granting "real death" to prevent any one man from ruling forever. He's powerful enough to erase Kovacs' record on Harlan's World, a nod back to the flashbacks in Season 2 of the live-action series, though this side mission takes place a year after the supposed death of Kovacs' sister and Quellcrist Falconer. He's brought back on the planet Latimer in order to assist a yakuza boss-Hideki Tanaseda-into investigating the murder of his brother at the hands of the rival Mizumoto clan. The timing of this side-story appears to be after the events of Season 1 and before the events of Season 2, though it's a little tricky to pin down.Īs usual, Takeshi Kovacs is back in a new sleeve, one with military training and heightened reflexes, but a powerful nicotine addiction (which never really comes into play except when it's introduced and in the final scene, for dramatic effect). It's all here in these handy explainers here and here. or at least they've figured out a way to download their consciousness into harddrives called Stacks that can be swapped into new bodies called Sleeves. Our intro to this one-off anime film also serves as an intro to the rules of the world, one in which future humans have shuffled off their mortal coils. Because of that, if you aren't caught up on at least the first season of the live-action Netflix series, you might want to remedy that before diving into the anime, because spoilers abound. It eventually opts in to being a part of Altered Carbon's world as well, thanks to a few well-placed lore drops and connections. Out of the gate, a couple of things are clear: Altered Carbon: Resleeved desperately wants to play in the worlds of Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and the Yakuza video game series.
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